October 17, 2010

Despite being caught in the middle of a labor dispute involving the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel and its workers, the Los Angeles-based Iranian Jewish political and civic action group 30 Years After (30YA) welcomed roughly 1,200 people, most of them local Iranian Jews, to its second biennial conference on Oct. 10. About a dozen picketers from UNITE HERE Local 11 lined up outside the Hyatt during the early morning hours, along with protesting members of the Jewish Labor Committee, but despite their presence, the conference moved forward uninterrupted.

30 Years After was established in 2008 to give voice to young professionals in the Iranian Jewish community who want to make a contribution to the larger community but have often felt ignored or held back by the older Iranian Jewish leadership.

An array of local community and religious leaders spoke to the group, including Sinai Temple’s Rabbi David Wolpe and talk-show host and author Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who urged the group to become more philanthropic toward both Jewish and non-Jewish causes. “We’re not successful Iranian Jews because we live in Beverly Hills, or wear Gucci, or have million-dollar weddings — we’re successful Iranian Jews because of our Jewish values and our commitment to tikkun olam,” Boteach told the crowd.

Some prominent elected officials and candidates on the upcoming November ballot were in attendance, including Republicans Meg Whitman, who is running for California governor, and Carly Fiorina, who is running for the California Senate seat; both of them spoke. Their Democratic counterparts had turned down invitations. Other local Democrats who initially agreed to come included Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Assembly members Mike Feuer and Bob Blumenfield, but they all canceled in support of the hotel workers’ union, instead providing video messages praising 30YA for its political activism in the Iranian Jewish community during the past year.

“30 Years After was instrumental in encouraging the legislature to pass and the governor to sign the ‘Iran Contracting Act of 2010’ (AB 1650), which prohibits companies doing business with Iran’s energy sector to be contracting with the State of California for contract in excess of $20 million,” Blumenfield said in his video address.

Following the event, 30YA board members said they received positive feedback from attendees, who also had opportunities to participate in smaller group discussions covering an array of topics.

“We were very pleased with the outcome of this year’s conference because of the large attendance and the fact that our break-out sessions provided our attendees with the key tools to go out there and apply what they’ve learned to help the community,” said Sam Yebri, president of the organization.

The following are just some of the snapshots from the conference I captured….

I caught up with the former L.A. Department of Water & Power chief, H. David Nahai before the 30 Years After (30YA) conference on October 10th before he was to appear on a panel for the conference to get his reactions to the recent controversy 30YA was caught up in with the Hyatt hotel worker’s union. Nahai, a local Iranian American Jewish activist, who is not a member of 30YA but has spoken at their past events, set the record straight with me about the realistic difficulties the organization faced when the hotel worker’s union asked 30YA to remove their conference from the Hyatt Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles only three weeks before its launching.

The following is my interview with Nahai about the Union dispute which targeted 30YA…

Read more about the 30YA conference being targeted by the hotel’s worker union “Unite Here – Local 11” in my latest article HERE.

Read more about the 30YA conference in my latest articles HERE and HERE.

 

History was made on October 10, 2010 at 30 Years After’s conference on Iranian American Jewish social and political activism in the U.S. The following are just some of the interviews and speeches I captured during my reporting on this conference….

My interview with 30YA president Sam Yebri about the outcome of this year’s conference:

L.A.‘s Sinai Temple Rabbi David Wolpe calls on young Iranian Jewish professionals to become more involved in community activism during his speech:

Making a special appearance at 30YA’s conference at the Century City Hyatt hotel, U.S. Senate candidate from California, Carly Fiorina, addresses the crowd of Iranian Jews about the reason she wanted to enter politics today:

Tel Aviv University’s Iranian Jewish professor of Iranian Studies, David Menasheri speaks on his panel about what caused the 1979 revolution in Iran and its outcome when radical Shiite Islamists took power in that country:

One of 30YA’s board members Michael Yadegaran speaks to me about the panel on Israel activism on college campuses he spoke on during the conference:

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, whose father is an Iranian Jew, spoke at the 30YA conference. In this video clip I captured Boteach denounced the United Nations for allowing Iran’s president to spew his hatred of Israel and the Iranian president blaming the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.:

Israel’s Consul General in Los Angeles, Jacob Dayan, calls on the members of 30YA to become politically active on the issue of Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons:

Yale Professor Firuz Kazamzadeh, who is also Bahai, spoke on this panel about the mistreatment and human rights abuses against people from the Bahai faith living in Iran today: